Zuma: ANC reaffirms radical change
2012-06-29 19:01
Johannesburg - ANC members agreed on the need for a radical economic and transformation programme, President Jacob Zuma said in Midrand, Johannesburg, on Friday.
"The branches of the ANC have declared we are in a continuous transition," Zuma, the party president, told delegates in his closing address at the African National Congress' policy conference.
"Therefore [the] conference resolved that interventions are required to speed up change and can be understood as a second phase," he said to loud applause.
One of the ANC's policy discussion documents dealt with the "second phase of transition". The document was originally named the "second transition" but was changed during commissions on Thursday.
Zuma said that although the ANC had many successes in the last 18 years, the "challenges" of poverty, inequality and employment persisted.
"We have scored since then. Indeed a lot of work has been done in 18 years," he said.
The ANC's four-day policy conference had come to a "fruitful and successful" conclusion on Friday evening, said Zuma.
He said the strength of the ANC was in its branches.
"National conference is actually a conference of the branches. That is when they discharge their power," said Zuma.
The ANC had come out of the conference "wiser and stronger".
Before he started his closing address Zuma received a rousing welcome when he took to the podium.
- SAPA
